Lisa Ann Walter On Destigmatizing Menopause: 'If Men Experienced It, There Would Be Contests for Hottest Hot Flash'

The 'Abbott Elementary' star and Centrum Hot Conversations ambassador opens up to PEOPLE about her experience with menopause

Lisa Ann Walter is done calling menopause "the change."

The Abbott Elementary star, who is leading Centrum's Hot Conversations campaign, tells PEOPLE everyone has spent long enough being coy and shame-driven about the "normal" aging process for women.

"Getting older as a female in this country has got to become something that is not the punchline or a topic that's shameful," Walter says. "I don't know anybody in my mother's generation that spoke openly about menopause. They kind of refer to it in these hushed tones — it's like when people used to talk about periods like the curse. Anything that has to do with being a woman is somehow connected to something that's shame-based."

Related: Lisa Ann Walter's 4 Children: All About Jordan, Delia, Spencer and Simon

Walter isn't the only one who feels this way. When Carrot Fertility surveyed 2,000 working women in the United States and the United Kingdom in 2023, 72% said they felt ashamed or embarrassed dealing with menopause symptoms — including hot flashes, trouble sleeping and fatigue — at their job and 90% said increased public awareness of menopause would help generate more support.

Reflecting on these facts and calling to mind the double standard she has experienced in Hollywood, Walter jokes, "If men experienced menopause, there would be contests for it. Like, it would be who has the hottest hot flash? Seriously."

The Parent Trap actress has had her fair share of menopause experiences on and off the job. Once, in a callback for a "boss role," Walter felt one of the most common menopause symptoms creeping up on her. She knew she was the writer's first choice and did her best to deliver the lines, but the hot flash took over.

"I was too embarrassed to say, 'No, I'm not nervous. I'm just old and having a hot flash,' " Walter says. "Women are sort of forced into maintaining youth or the illusion of youth. It's completely unfair and then you discount all of the wonderful things that go with being mature and experienced and the wisdom that goes along with all of that."

Taking back the power and telling her own stories about menopause has been one balm for the social toll of aging in Hollywood. When Walter's friend Whoopi Goldberg cast her in the medical drama Strong Medicine as a comic going through menopause when she was in her mid-30s, the actress's first reaction was shock.

"I was like, 'What? Why are you pushing it?' " Walter says. But, once she realized the potential power of the role, the actress reconsidered. "'Okay, I'm in, on one condition,' " Walter remembers telling Goldberg. "'Let me write the jokes' — because even then, I was conscious of not wanting every joke to be about dryness."

Through all the ups and downs of menopause and aging, Walter has continued her career, picking up steam with a starring role in the SAG Award-winning series Abbott Elementary. What's kept her going and encouraged her in tough moments is a piece of wisdom from her mother.

"She said, 'You know, Lis, I don't feel any different on the inside than when I was like a 17-year-old standing in the hallway of my high school. Inside I feel like the same person. I know I'm getting older, I have a mirror, but I don't feel any different,' " Walter remembers. "And I say for myself personally, I kept that with me."

Connecting her continued career success after decades of working in the industry with that of her Abbott costar Sheryl Lee Ralph, Walter applies her mother's lesson to gratitude for her busy life these days.

"Nothing is a guarantee about what you can do or when you should do it or what you should try," she says. "I feel exactly the same optimistic, energetic person that I did when I was in high school. I know more. I have more wisdom, but I feel just as fresh and happy as I did then."

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